Greatness that had no equal: exactly 100 years ago the USSR was formed

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It happened exactly one hundred years ago. On December 30, 1922, in Moscow, at the Bolshoi Theater, representatives of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic and the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic approved the Treaty on the Formation of the Greatest Power, perhaps in the history of mankind - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . A country that has played one of the leading roles in world history and, paradoxically it may sound to someone, continues to play this role today.

That is why, even a century after the birth of the USSR, and despite the fact that today we live in a whirlwind of fateful events for Russia, seemingly overshadowing "the affairs of bygone days", a discussion on this topic is quite appropriate. And even, more than that, it is necessary. For the war that the “collective West” is waging against us today is, in fact, being waged not only and not so much against Russia, but against the formidable and majestic ghost of the Soviet Union, which even through the abyss of time frightens and infuriates the trash there ...



Today we will not be nostalgic, remembering the great achievements of that country and that era - for those are undeniable and known to everyone for whom the abbreviation USSR is not an empty phrase. Do not talk about her very controversial shortcomings and "sins", because it is not for us to judge those people, and that great time. Let's better revive some key moments in history and try again to look for answers to some questions regarding the Soviet Union.

Was there an alternative to the USSR?

But really - what would have happened if this alliance had not formed a hundred years ago, at first small and weak, and later spread over one-sixth of the earth's firmament? Yes, nothing good would have happened - that's for sure. The gentlemen liberals and other democrats who ruined the Russian empire, who had only enough fuse to "overthrow the autocracy", would have blown absolutely everything. In a few years, there would be no memory left of the Empire. It was thanks to the Bolsheviks, who created from its ruins a new state that had no analogues in the world - the Soviet Union, our territorial losses were limited only to Poland and Finland. Yes, and they remained independent solely because Comrade Stalin decided so. If he had expressed other intentions in 1945, no one would have dared to blather a word across. The peoples who made their choice in 1922 and in subsequent years simply had no alternative - either a new unification around Russia, or the position of someone else's colonies. Armed capture followed by robbery and enslavement - that would be their future. Fortunately, there were enough people around. Yes, and quite specific attempts were made by those who wished - what kind of interventionists our land did not know during the Civil War.

Again, later, when the Great Patriotic War broke out, even those countries that hypothetically could maintain some semblance of independence in the 20s and 30s of the XX century. The example of the same Poland and Finland proves this exactly 100%. However, not only he, but also the sad fate of some (and not so few) countries of the "post-Soviet space", which we are already seeing today. The creation of the Soviet Union was the only way to survive and preserve themselves as ethnic groups for many peoples. Here is what they used.
When was the USSR "real"?

Strange question, don't you think? No, it's quite appropriate. After all, anyone who really knows Soviet history will agree that the country has experienced tremendous transformations throughout its development (and decline). Lenin's NEP and Stalin's collectivization, Khrushchev's "thaw" and Brezhnev's "stagnation" - all these are periods that differ from each other almost like day from night. Not to mention Gorbachev's, don't forget it at night, "perestroika" ... Personally, I am inclined to agree with the opinion of those historians who consider the "true" Soviet time, the "golden age" of the Soviet Union, the reign of the great Stalin, highlighting the time period from 1945 to the time of his death. Further - the road "downhill", stretching for many decades only thanks to the colossal resource that was accumulated under the Supreme. It was then that the Union was both Soviet and socialist, not only in name, but also in its essence. Equality was true, unity was universal, faith in ideals was unshakable and universal. As soon as it began to get lost, blurred, turned into a fiction, the crash came.

First, in people's minds and souls, and then in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. To a large extent, the reason for it was the transformation of the Communist Party from a truly advanced detachment of Soviet society, whose members were the first to rise against enemy machine guns, into a caste of the elite, beyond the jurisdiction of anyone and beyond control. Under Stalin, communists had unlimited responsibilities. Under Khrushchev and beyond - unlimited privileges and rights. At least - at the top of the party. Everything started from that. Yes, the generations that lived in the 60s, 70s, 80s were still Soviet people. However, a certain main internal “core” in them “softened” more and more, allowing the enemies of the USSR to eventually win a vile “victory” over it without firing a shot.

Could the USSR have been saved?


Actually, this question directly follows from the previous one. Many copies have been broken in discussions around what would happen if not the traitor Gorbachev, but someone else became the General Secretary, how everything would turn out, if there were more decisive and tough personalities at the head of the GKChP and did not appear as the leader of the "democrats" Boris Yeltsin... It's all empty, gentlemen and comrades. Over and over again under the USSR, “delayed-action mines” were laid, each of which subsequently played its fatal role. The tragic mistakes of the country's leaders (including the most prominent of them) gradually gained that very "critical mass" that led to the explosion that dispersed the great power. The Leninist idea of ​​granting the union republics the right to self-determination, up to and including secession from the USSR, and the emphasis on “raising national self-consciousness” in those (primarily the Ukrainization of Little Russia) ...

Stalin's excessive trust in the "allies" - the Anglo-Saxons, with whom he really was going to honestly build a new, post-war world ... Khrushchev's treacherous rescue of the real enemies of the people, Bandera, the Baltic "forest brothers" and other evil spirits that he pulled out of the camps , not to mention the XNUMXth Congress and the "exposing of the cult of personality" ... The suppression under Brezhnev of the crimes committed during the Great Patriotic War as our "comrades-in-arms in the socialist camp", like Romanians or Hungarians, and various nationalist rabble ...

These were all steps towards 1991. So some character, passionately desiring to save the Soviet Union and suddenly got a time machine at his disposal (there are such stories in Russian science fiction), should not have gone in search of young Gorbachev to kill him, but at a much earlier time. Or rather, times. Although, I’m lying, Bullseye would have been worth killing in any case ... One thing can be said with complete certainty - the great USSR was not at all “historically doomed” to collapse, as they tried and are trying to hammer into our heads. Nothing like this. Its creation was an ingenious decision. And the collapse is a terrible mistake and tragedy.

Is the revival of the USSR real?


This question today excites the minds, without exaggeration, of millions of people. As I said above, in the West this option is taken more than seriously. And they are afraid of him to shiver, to cold sweat, to nightmares. For a reborn great power, whose leaders and people will be armed with the bitter experience of all past mistakes and miscalculations, will become invincible. That is why they are now hurriedly trying to undertake a revision of all the results, results and the very essence of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. That is why the war that is being waged today against Russia by the hands of neo-Nazis carefully bred in Ukraine is, first of all, a war against the revival of the Soviet Union. If it is lost, any chance of his return in any form can be forgotten forever. However, let's be honest - in the current realities, a straightforward, rude and forced attempt to recreate an "unbreakable union" will turn into nothing more than a new geopolitical catastrophe in the space that it once occupied. Bloody and truly fatal for all "post-Soviet" states. No one says that a new birth of a great power is completely impossible under any circumstances.

In the end, in 1922, the Bolsheviks managed to start building a new Empire to replace the one destroyed before their eyes and not without their participation. Powers with a completely different ideology, political and economic structure, but uniting the same peoples and lands that had been gathered for centuries under the scepter of Russian sovereigns. Yes, the hypothetical "USSR-2.0" is unlikely to be socialist (although - far from a fact, too much indicates that capitalism in its current form has exhausted itself). It is not at all necessary that he will be soldered by the communist (or some other, equal in strength) ideology. Rather, it will be a union of states that have drunk enough of “independence” and, due to life circumstances, are again forced to seek associations with other countries (and not necessarily only “post-Soviet” ones!) For survival and further development.

Will it happen? When and how might something like this happen? These questions are somewhat beyond the scope of this text. Most likely, if a state that can be justifiably considered and called “the continuation (or, if you like, “reincarnation”) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics reappears on the world map, it will not be very soon. The process of "gathering the lands" will be long and laborious. Although ... It is unlikely that on December 30, 1922, anyone in the world could have imagined that a country was born, the greatness, power and glory of which in a decade or two will not be equal in the world.
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23 comments
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  1. +4
    30 December 2022 09: 05
    Those were the leaders, not like the current ones - false patriots.
  2. +3
    30 December 2022 09: 06
    Here, this must be celebrated .... Here you have both historical continuity and "non-distortion" - it has been so fashionable for 30 years ...
    Despite a bunch of minuses (who doesn’t have them? According to the media, only Putin), he achieved greatness.

    And the rest is stretch and PR. And that Stalin trusted the allies, and that someone there, and not the Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, raised the national battalions, and the USSR-2, about which Putin clearly said, will not ... (because the USSR is primarily an economy, and not serving Shoigu with beauties and the army with NIAM)
  3. +3
    30 December 2022 09: 14
    Under the USSR, the country, the state and the Motherland were a single whole and served all the people.
    Yes. They were poor, not very literate, often technically backward, but they served honestly, sincerely, as best they could.
    And now, judging by what is happening, the state is the enemy of the country, and the Motherland is not at all from this opera.
    1. +8
      30 December 2022 17: 20
      Quote: prior
      often technically backward

      But these "technically backward" were the first to master space.
  4. +5
    30 December 2022 09: 55
    In addition to what is indicated in the article, the creation of the USSR laid the foundation for national liberation movements throughout the world, many countries lost their colonies, and a two-polar world developed. Yes, and today's China is a merit of the USSR, it is quite successfully developing for itself, led by the Communist Party, and will probably soon become a leader in the economy. And Europe and America are increasingly engaged in state regulation and slaughter market relations, come up with all sorts of ceilings, which grandfather Lenin spoke about, what will happen after state-oligarchic capitalism.
    1. 0
      30 December 2022 11: 03
      Comrades!
      Congratulations to everyone for whom today's anniversary is a holiday.

      But paying tribute to the real achievements of the USSR
      (and in different periods there were achievements, for example, the peak of housing construction was in 1987-88),
      those successes should not be exaggerated beyond measure, for contrast, denigrating the modern Russian Federation.

      Quote: Pro100
      many countries lost their colonies

      In 1941, the United States forced Britain to sign the Atlantic Charter.
      pp. 4 of that charter read:

      Free access of all countries, great or small, to world trade and raw materials necessary for the economic prosperity of states;

      Which, translated from pretentious to businesslike, meant that the United States had the right to buy raw materials and sell products in the British colonies without asking London.
      Similarly, in the colonies of France, the Netherlands ...

      Well, if other countries can buy raw materials / sell products in your colony, then there is no reason to maintain the administration. That was the end of the colonial system.
      And until now, what thread of the Congo (~ 50% of the world's cobalt production), cooperates with different countries, and spends the proceeds on products from different countries.

      Quote: Pro100
      today's China is a merit of the USSR,

      since the late 197s,

      Dan exemplifies Japan as a country with a rapidly developing economic power, whose experience could serve as a lesson for China in the light of future economic transformations.

      In agriculture, most of the "people's communes" were dissolved, and the peasantry mostly switched to family work. At the second stage of the reform (1984-1992), the planned system was dismantled and the transition to a market economy took place.
      1. +2
        30 December 2022 12: 17
        The fact of the matter is that we managed to break almost all the achievements of the USSR, to which we are now forced to return, instead of switching to a market economy without fanaticism, with elements of state regulation. Under the capitalist economic system, it is very difficult to manage an empire, which is why the Americans come up with all sorts of charters and sanctions.
        1. +2
          30 December 2022 12: 52
          Quote: Pro100
          we managed to break almost all the achievements of the USSR, to which we are now forced to return

          So I am writing about this, that it is necessary to soberly evaluate both the achievements of the USSR and the modern Russian Federation, in the context of comparison with more / less comparable countries.

          from my point of view, the greatest peaceful achievements of the late USSR (starting with Brezhnev) were:

          1) complex development in quarters, with a lot of free space for greenery, schools, especially kindergartens, clinics.

          yes, the suburbs of Boston look more attractive, and similar neighborhoods in rich countries were used as social housing (with a large proportion of hereditary unemployed).
          But in middle-class countries (not impoverished Asia, Latin America), everything is much less cute.
          (Google street view).

          2) pioneer camps

          3) Soyuz LV system - KK Soyuz / TK Progress - Salyut / Mir OS.
          turned out to be much more economical, efficient and more promising than the alternative with space shuttles, for all their pathos

          4) reactors of the VVER-1000 project

          5) icebreakers of the Arktika class

          All points, except for 2, received successive development in the Russian Federation.

          If someone does not consider these aspects to be achievements, and is ready to offer an alternative list - well, the 100th anniversary is a worthy occasion to remember all the good things about the hero of the day.
          1. +1
            30 December 2022 22: 41
            Achievement is understandable. But with the collapse of the USSR, some concepts have blurred, which is alarming. Even though it's been 30 years. For example, medicine and education seem to be free, but it seems not, the subsoil seems to be state-owned, but it seems not, so are civil and defense enterprises, the army seems to be contractual, but it seems not, whether it’s officials, if it’s bourgeois, it’s like capitalism, but it’s like socialism. Under the USSR, everything was clear.
  5. +4
    30 December 2022 11: 30
    Billions of people in the world benefited a lot from the mere existence of the USSR.

    But there is such a single nation that managed to do everything about .... And in the richest country in the World to remain without pants in the "holy 90s" .. ..and now they are at war with themselves. Hooray, comrades!!!
  6. +3
    30 December 2022 11: 55
    USSR and the world socialist system were the hope of the world for a brighter future for all mankind.
    Building a just society on Earth even now is the natural and only alternative to the death of mankind in the final development of its animal nature. We are already on the verge of the complete destruction of our civilization and we really see the finale.
    The surrender by the Soviet Union of its positions to the States, which, according to the well-known American journalist Paul Craig, represents Satanic Evil itself, led to a global imbalance of the forces of good and evil on the planet, put humanity on the brink of its death.
    In the experience of the USSR, everything is equally important: public administration, the social orientation of society, its planned scientific development, the rejection of thoughtless, “animal” mechanisms in the economy and public life, the bringing forward of the ideal goal of building a just society on the planet.
    The collapse of the USSR is not about socialism in general - it is about the serious national illness of its "typical" model.
    We went first. China took into account our experience, abandoned the "standard" and built its own successful national model. We need to take advantage of this mistake, create our own, national model of socialism, and move on. The failure of the world socialist system suggests that "typical" model of socialism does not exist in nature. Each people must go its own way and cost its own national socialism.
    The creation of a state system common to all nations, which our ancestors considered the task of socialism, is simply moving on to the next stage in the development of mankind.
    It is necessary to return the people to the kingdom - to create a mass ruling people's party. The existing parties (ALL), which served as a soft bedding for the current government, are not suitable for this.
    We need to restore the world socialist system. This potential is still waiting for its continuation in us and in the world around us. As before, this is the only way to defeat the expansion of the Anglo-Saxons, opposing them to global fascism, the system of building a just society on the planet.
    On the causes of the collapse of socialism in the USSR and the construction of its successful national model
    https://dzen.ru/a/Y0SZQ_JEl1tQX2NG
    https://dzen.ru/a/YYOYhkWYoiHuvxVR
  7. 0
    30 December 2022 14: 03
    Cheers, comrades!
    and on the topic - so why did the greatest empire collapse after having existed for only 69 years?
    1. +2
      30 December 2022 17: 25
      Quote: Vladimir80
      so why did the greatest empire fall apart after only 69 years?

      By the fact that the traitors managed to come to power and destroy the country from the inside.
    2. +1
      30 December 2022 17: 38
      Vladimir80:
      so why did the greatest empire fall apart after only 69 years?

      In short: due to the imperfections of our model of socialism, unable to preserve and maintain further continuously, the starting "tonus" of society. The weakening of the challenge to the existence of the country after the victory in the Second World War and the death of Stalin led to a slowdown in development. Little negative phenomena gradually accumulated, with which everyone put up and stopped noticing. The mass of these phenomena increased and put pressure on public morality. Without active use, the atrophy of public/party mechanisms deepened. Under these conditions, the party elite was outside the attention of society and took up their own well-being. The latter successfully used the CIA, dragging it to the side of the United States.
      The same model of socialism was imposed on other countries by us, because. an immediate response to the aggressive environment was needed, and we had no other model, just as there was still no complete understanding of its work.
  8. +5
    30 December 2022 14: 15
    Stalin trusted the allies? Nonsense. Stalin "allies" poked his nose into their guano, as soon as they started something. And he simply complied with his obligations under the contracts. And he rendered good assistance to Mao by handing over the weapons of the Kwantung Army to the communists. One party will not be enough, again there will be usurpation, bureaucratization, the formation of a nomenklatura. Two or three, differing in methodology. Let them compete, who is better, achieves goals faster - to protect and multiply the wealth and glory of the Fatherland (s). Russia needs to offer the world an attractive model, then the people will be drawn to it. Happy New Year! For our Motherland - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!
    1. +2
      30 December 2022 14: 58
      Gaļina Rozkova's comment:
      One party will not be enough, again there will be usurpation, bureaucratization, the formation of a nomenklatura. Two or three, differing in methodology.

      Galina, when we talk about the national model of socialism, we mean taking into account in it the characteristics of the nation, its strengths and weaknesses. The 30 years of existence of the multi-party system have already shown its unviability on our national soil. The thing is historical political passivity of our people, his inability to link several parties into a single system of government by his own activity. To do this, we need an external system that organizes us, which, by definition, is absent in a multi-party state, where everything is organized by the people themselves.
      The Bolsheviks found the only right way for Russia and the USSR - to create a single party for the people INSIDE of which all selection processes will take place. Inner life and struggle of ideas inside During the years of the first five-year plans and the Second World War, the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks shows how democratic processes can actually be made to work in our nation. Figuratively speaking, these processes need a common "home", "family", which becomes a single mass people's ruling party. All disputes, scandals and showdowns take place in it, without destroying this system and the country itself.
      Its effectiveness has already been proven by life. However, the system turned out not protected from factors of internal degradation. We needed a lesson and reality gave it to us.
      It remains to extract "not throwing the baby out"
      1. 0
        31 December 2022 22: 42
        Many parties? Divide and rule! Bump your noses!
        1. -1
          3 January 2023 16: 36
          Divide and rule! Bump your noses!

          Right. And this "ruler" will not be inside the country, but outside - overseas
    2. +1
      30 December 2022 17: 07
      Two or three, differing in methodology.

      As a matter of fact, Galina, this is, two or three factions within a single mass party. The task of a single mass people's party is to make sure that all disagreements within it benefit the country
  9. +7
    30 December 2022 16: 41
    The mere fact that prices in the USSR did not change for years and were beaten out on goods (we did not know the concept of inflation (robbery of the people!), Housing and communal services was symbolic, and deputies worked at plants and factories - causes respect. There were many shortcomings, excesses and insufficiencies, BUT: we almost never closed the door to the apartment with a key, neighbors in the stairwell treated each other with pies, pancakes, jam ... People were kinder. That's what nostalgia is about.
  10. -2
    30 December 2022 16: 51
    Tectonic processes in politics are gaining momentum and can fall like an avalanche at any moment. The same Vladimir Ilyich said that he did not expect to live to see the revolution in Russia, and not only survived, but also led it.
    The contours of the future USSR 2.0 are already quite clearly looming. This is primarily BRICS, and then Turkey and Azerbaijan will join it without options. The Central Asian republics will also not have much choice.
    The process has been going on for a long time and in front of everyone, there is no need to invent unnecessary obstacles.
  11. +3
    30 December 2022 21: 03
    I was born in the USSR and I am proud of it, I received the best education in the world, the word MOTHERLAND was not an empty word for me, the cattle standing by the tank on which the drunk climbed / apparently Ulyanov imagined himself from a hangover / Yeltsin chanted .... Yeltsin ... I won't forget this either.
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    1. +1
      31 December 2022 22: 43
      Mankind initially tried to create a just and correct society - there were many attempts, and with the development of mankind, they took on an increasingly constructive form. The last attempt in the USSR also failed, civilization has not yet developed to the desired level. The richest understood the essence of communism and agreed with the principles, but they did not see the practical implementation, too underdeveloped society. Over time, society and man develops and the beginnings of communism are visible in today's capitalist relations in developed countries - the life of the poor on benefits, and so on. Communism humanism echoes Christian mandates. For you personally: communism means where the primary family is replaced by the entire state, both in terms of relations and distribution. And the wretched brother in the family will be kept on a par with the best family workers when the relationship is equal. Approximately ultra-briefly about the foundations of communism ...
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